With A Grateful Heart

It's uplifting to get the positive feedback, and also warming to have friends who walk through their day with a grateful heart. Life's so much brighter with one!

"Some friends of ours went to see Hairspray and said it was amazing!  They are from here in Le Roy and don't personally know Joe, but we asked them about his role and they were surprised this was his first production!  They said he did an awesome job!  Is he enjoying the productions?  Brian and I are hoping to make it there this weekend if possible.

Looking forward to getting together soon with you both! 

Enjoy this beautiful day!

With a grateful heart,
Kerri"

Will Smith Secret To Success

By Jon Gordon:

What does a treadmill have to do with Will Smith’s success as a movie star and actor?

Everything!

When asked by an interviewer to explain his success, he responded:

"I’m not afraid to die on a treadmill. I will not be outworked. You may be more talented than me. You might be smarter than me. And you may be better looking than me. But if we get on a treadmill together you are going to get off first or I’m going to die. It’s really that simple. I’m not going to be outworked."

But what about his talent you might ask. After all, he is charismatic, funny and a great actor. Isn’t that the reason for his success? Not according to Will Smith. In fact he considers himself to be slightly above average in the talent category. Rather, he attributes his success to his work ethic.

You may be surprised to hear this because popular opinion says that successful people who have risen to the top of their profession got there because "they were lucky" or "they were chosen" or "they were born with more talent than everyone else." We overestimate their talent and we underestimate our own.

In my research for Training Camp I found that people such as Will Smith are not super human and they don’t have some mutant gene that makes them better. What makes them stand out is that they work harder. It’s really that simple. When others are wasting time, they are improving. When others are scattering their energy they are practicing and zoom focusing.

Of course talent is necessary to excel at something but natural ability will only take someone so far. The key is to infuse one’s talent with hard work, passion and a drive for excellence.

So what does Will Smith have to do with you?

Everything!

If you want to take your career or "game" to the next level you must be willing to pay the price that greatness requires. You must be willing to work harder than everyone you know. There’s no easy shortcut. Hard Work has been, is and always will be the key to anyone’s success. To be your best you must invest all that you are to become everything you wish to be.

Married Vacation!

Excited to get a getaway weekend with Dena into the schedule, after her long and gracious support as a widow of both a basketball coach and rookie actor since November.

Where to? Maybe Hidden Bloggers can help us out there. Galena perhaps?

Thursday June 7 through Saturday June 9. Let the good times roll!

How San Antonio Contained Chris Paul

By Sebastian Pruiti of Grantland.com

Justin Edmonds/Getty Images

Despite having the best regular-season record, the San Antonio Spurs had some problems on defense — particularly containing ball handlers in pick-and-roll situations. According to Synergy Sports, they were last in the league in terms of points per possession allowed to ball handlers in these plays. I expected the Los Angeles Clippers to exploit this weakness with PNR plays for Chris Paul and for him to take over like he did against the Grizzlies. But that's is not what happened Tuesday night. The Spurs were able to hold Paul to just six points on 3-of-13 shooting, and, while he did have 10 assists, the Spurs forced Paul into five turnovers, as well.

How did this happen? Like Miami has to defend Indiana, the Spurs must limit the side pick-and-roll to stifle the Clippers' offense. The difference in this series, though, is that the Spurs must stop the ball handler (Paul) and not the roll man, and that's just what they did Tuesday night. San Antonio held Los Angeles to a PPP of 0.778 in side pick-and-roll situations with Chris Paul as the ball handler. In fact, San Antonio's defense was so effective that the Clippers all but abandoned that strategy down the stretch. They only ran it once in the second half and not at all during the fourth quarter.

The Spurs' goal was to prevent Paul from getting to the middle of the floor off a screen. If the screener was a 3 man and Tony Parker was guarding Paul, the Spurs hedged:



After setting a backscreen for Randy Foye, Caron Butler steps up and sets a ball screen on the wing for Paul, trying to allow him to get to the middle of the court. But Kawhi Leonard pops out and hedges, getting his body completely in front of Paul to stop the dribble. As that happens, Tony Parker is working his way around the screen any way he can — in this case, he's going under it.



Now, this isn't a trap like we see Miami do time after time; this is just a simple hedge. Leonard pops out and stops Paul's attack, which allows Parker to recover.



Leonard is athletic enough that he gets back to Butler just as he is making the catch, preventing an open jump shot. Butler tries to drive, gets caught behind the basket, and turns it over. Here it is in real time:

Anytime you can turn a Chris Paul pick-and-roll on the side into a spinning fadeaway 3 as the clock expires, the defense has done its job.
On side pick-and-rolls with the big setting the screen, the Spurs did something different, something called "bluing it," also known as "icing it" or "downing it." They took away Chris Paul's option to use the screen altogether:



A common Clippers play is for a big to pass to Paul and then follow the pass with a ball screen. That's exactly what happens here. Paul dumps it to Griffin and goes to the corner. Then he gets the ball back from Griffin, who follows the pass and gets in position to screen.



This is where your "blue" (or "down" or "ice") happens. The defense denies the ball handler and forces him to go along the baseline. Here, Boris Diaw, the man covering Griffin, calls it out, letting Tony Parker know that there is a ball screen coming. Once Parker hears that, he adjusts his body, gets on Paul's hip, and makes it impossible for Paul to use the screen. He has to dribble baseline where Diaw is zoning off the area.



Griffin fades away to the elbow (as he should), but since he isn't a shooter he's neither a threat nor an option. Paul can either dribble into a double team or dump it down to DeAndre Jordan in the post. He takes the second option and Jordan misses the layup.

Paul generally makes the right decisions on the court — which means when they run the side pick-and-roll, he passes it instead of trying to dribble into the help defender. And as I said above, if you can keep Paul from getting to the middle of the floor with the ball, that's a win for the defense.

Look at the guys taking these shots instead of Paul: Randy Foye makes a contested 3, but I'm sure the Spurs can live with that. On the other two plays, Kenyon Martin and Caron Butler miss jump shots. The Spurs are making everyone other than Paul beat them.
The Spurs defense was attacking Paul on handoffs on the side as well. Off of an inbounds pass, Paul passes to Griffin and then looks to get it back off of a dribble handoff. The Spurs trap him as soon as he gets it, forcing a turnover.

This is a great game plan from Gregg Popovich and the Spurs' coaching staff. Chris Paul's contributions were severely limited. It's now up to the Clippers and Paul to counter.

Sold Out!

Word travels fast. I remember a few days before opening night where there were still well over half the seats remaining. Now we're seeing sellouts night after night, even getting a request to add an extra show.

I hope that more friends can get in to see the remaining performances. It was heartening to hear one elderly couple walk out of the show and declare it the best they've seen in their 20 years of going to shows here.

Yeah!

Happiness Is... A Warm Director... And Amazing Team

I've been in enough volunteer organizations to deeply appreciate leadership when I see it. In yet another incredible stroke of luck, Hairspray is directed and co-directed by two bright, passionate, creative and caring people. And they know how to provide feedback after a performance that had us all buzzing once we'd pulled it off:

[Hidden Blog notes are embedded in brackets for clarity]

From Alan Wilson:

"Well, yesterday, I predicted you’d be a huge hit….and you surpassed even that!  We may not always have audiences like that but their energy was contagious….or maybe it was the other way around!  Congratulations on a spectacular performance and the applause you so richly deserved. 

 

A special thanks to Claron and Scott [our stage managers] who have done a tough job with very little recognition.  Many thanks to both of you!

 

Orchestra….you are unsurpassed!  Incredible job, Eugene and crew!   Many Thanks!

 

To Wendy [co-director] and Brett [producer], and Rich [assistant sound tech], and Jen [costume designer] and her crew and Kelly, my able assistant and my rock, and  Jeremy and Hannah for the spectacular set, and John for our incredible lights and his patience with my schizophrenia, and Chris Terven and Gidget for the props and the extra hours they’ve spent so I wouldn’t have a heart attack, and our house managers, Sally and Audrey ….and of course, the best cast I have ever seen in Bloomington…no, really…the everlovin’ BEST CAST ever….….I know that this has been a labor of love…and not financial gain   :D……….. thank you all so much for your passion and dedication and fighting through the tough days to get where we are! My prayer is that the destination is worth the journey! I love you, one and all!!"

From Wendy Baugh:

"I echo Alan's comments as well!  So proud of all of you, and am truly blessed to part of such a wonderful group!  It's Opening Night!!  Let's show them what we are really made of!! Love you all!!!"

Hairspray: The Poster

There are still two weekends left for you to enjoy the blessing that I've had for the last two months - the opportunity to be around a group of people who are not only funny, creative, and talented, but genuinely good-hearted to the point that I get a little choked up at the thought of how quickly it's coming to an end.

Friends, I sincerely hope that you can snatch up some of the few dozen tickets left for each show this weekend, which went fast during the sellouts we had last week!

http://www.communityplayers.org/shows_hairspray.html